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Canadian Open will be held at the Guildford Rec Center

CANADIAN OPEN
Sep 10-14, 2002 (qualifying rounds Sep 9th)
Guilford Recreation Centre - 15105-105 Ave Surrey, BC
FYI, teams from England, Scotland, France, Norway, India, Mexico and the USA are confirmed to participate.
Registration Deadline August 30th.
Entry forms have been emailed to clubs. They are also on our web site in .pdf format. If you would like one faxed or emailed (.doc format) please advise.

what a wild week this could be...

do let us know if you will attend. although the venue is in Surrey, it is but a short drive to Vancouver and other cities. we could have a nice little BC members mini-meet ourselves.

hey cooler - can you get more vacation time to come over again?

If you also can volunteer, you can attend the matches for free, but i don't think the price of admission will be that high anyways. For those of you familiar with the gym, they will be placing 4 court mats and will be run perpendicular to the way the courts are aligned now. as well, they will be curtaining the side windows to eliminate the extraneous light. bench bleachers will also be put in place for the audience.

Re: what a wild week this could be...

Originally posted by badrad do let us know if you will attend. although the venue is in Surrey, it is but a short drive to Vancouver and other cities. we could have a nice little BC members mini-meet ourselves.

hey cooler - can you get more vacation time to come over again?

If you also can volunteer, you can attend the matches for free, but i don't think the price of admission will be that high anyways. For those of you familiar with the gym, they will be placing 4 court mats and will be run perpendicular to the way the courts are aligned now. as well, they will be curtaining the side windows to eliminate the extraneous light. bench bleachers will also be put in place for the audience.

just as well... the doubles draw is very small - last count was 10 MD and 10 WD teams in the draw. at the last moment France had to withdraw due to delay in getting their visas or something like that. the men's draw is pretty decent size.

Brasil (Brazil) was there today! They had a fair sized team too. So was a woman from Guatemala but she was alone... didn't see a coach, teammates, or anything. She lost vs USA and she looked like she needed some support. On an amusing side, I sat near team England and although they were speaking english... my wife and I couldn't understand a bloody thing they were saying *LMAO* . At first we thought they were from Norway until 20min later we realized they were speaking english *LOL* .

As far as the tournament itself... almost everyone in the stands were players, hardly any spectators. Pretty pathetic on the part of Badminton Canada or whatever organization is responsible for advertising the tournament. It's no wonder badminton hasn't reached the commercialized popularity levels of other sports here.

However, don't let that stop you from coming down to watch. If you love badminton and live in the lower mainland, then you should definately stop by and watch. Most of these athletes are poetry in motion. Watching it live definately beats watching it on the tube. Even singles matches live is quite exciting whereas on tape I just fast forward to the doubles hehe unless it's two top level players.

Day 1 - Canadian Open

I went to the first day of the Canadian Open which started at 9am but didn't actually get there until 12 noonish.

Got to say that the turnout is pretty pathetic (as timeless has indicated). Most of the folks there were players. Managed to catch a few games of men singles.

Was sitting (with my little 3 year daughter) amongst the US contingent with the Canadians further right and the Norwegians on the left. The games that I caught features Kyle Hunter, Kyle Foyle, Vincent Teo (all Canadians) and another one between Kennevic Asuncion (Philippines) and Lars Abusdal (Norway) and also the one between Jim Anderson (Norway) and Karandeep Kohal (India).

I got to say that the US team were pretty supportive of their players as they would be cheering and clapping whereas the Canadian team were, well, disinterested whenever one of their team mates played.

The gym at Guildford was pretty big and they had four courts (only two were being used when I attended) and had covered up all the glass windows with thick brown paper. The lights were okay (they had alternate banks of lights on).

No printed schedule of the matches and the copy that I saw didn't have up to date information (for instance, it showed that both the men and ladies doubles starts at 4pm Wed - all 8 matches!).

The first game that I watched was between Vincent Teo and Danilo Nannini (Brazil) which went 3 games with Vincent the eventual winner. The footwork that these guys have are amazing and it shows how important footwork is in this game. Most smashes to the player were returned cross-court and the smashes that scored are those away. The Brazil team was all using Yonex (in fact, almost all players in the tourney were Yonex-sponsored) and Vincent, I believed was using Yonex but has the Forza logo on the strings (at least I was sure that the butt cap showed the YY logo).

Second game was between (started in the next court partway through the Teo/Nannini game) Anderson and Kohal which was a pretty quick game with Anderson winning in straight sets.

Third game was between Asuncion and Abusdal which went straight sets too with Asuncion winning. He was using a MP100 and has a wicked smash whereas Abusdal has more of a soft touch.

Fourth game was between Hunter and Guilherme Pardo (Brazil) and Hunter won in straight games although Pardo was leading in the second, a string of unforced errors costed him. A number of good rallies. There was one time when Pardo asked for a change of shuttle but Hunter refused and the ump has to verify that the shuttle was indeed unplayable.

Last game that I watched was between Kyle Foyle and Nick Jinadasa (USA) but unfortunately was not able to stay and finished watching (my daughter was getting ansty and hungry - should have fed her lunch beforehand). Foyle was using a Forza racquet (not sure what model) and lost the first game 15-13 even though he was leading 13-10. I think that the shuttles were a little fast for the venue as Foyle was serving long a number of times (conceded easy points). Ardy Wiranata and Guber were all there. Ardy has his family with him and spent time with the US team (since he used to coached some of the members).

Came back after lunch (around 3ish) but everything is over and it was just practise time for some of the teams. Watched an impromptu ladies doubles match (not sure who is who). One of them was using an Ashaway racquet and the other, a brand that escape me (logo is a swallow??). Pretty interesting game. Julie Mann was practising singles with Colin Haughton (who got a bye today). The Canadian ladies were also there practising (e.g. Julien, Sun, etc). Ardy has changed into his playing clothes (he was previously in street clothes). Stayed for a while to watch but then my little one was getting cranky (needed her nap).

Overall, the matches were good but I got to say that Badminton Canada and Badminton BC has to do a better job in organizing this as I couldn't get a schedule and you have no idea who is going to be playing and the turnout was pretty bad. More information needs to be on the web site.

Re: Day 1 - Canadian Open

Originally posted by Winex West Can
Overall, the matches were good but I got to say that Badminton Canada and Badminton BC has to do a better job in organizing this as I couldn't get a schedule and you have no idea who is going to be playing and the turnout was pretty bad. More information needs to be on the web site.

FYI: apparently badminton BC has absolutely nothing to do with coordinating or managing this tournament. badminton canada left badminton bc out of the loop. badminton canada waited until the last week before the tournament before even signing the contract for use of the facilities. posters were not printed, most of the posters were electronic format and was up to some of the guildford coaches to print them and distribute them. IMHO badminton canada is really messed up and has lots of internal organizational problems. really even wonder if they will be able to break even on the cost of the tournament. the venue cost them around $5000 to rent for the week.

Day 2- Canadian Open

Originally posted by badrad

FYI: apparently badminton BC has absolutely nothing to do with coordinating or managing this tournament. badminton canada left badminton bc out of the loop. badminton canada waited until the last week before the tournament before even signing the contract for use of the facilities. posters were not printed, most of the posters were electronic format and was up to some of the guildford coaches to print them and distribute them. IMHO badminton canada is really messed up and has lots of internal organizational problems. really even wonder if they will be able to break even on the cost of the tournament. the venue cost them around $5000 to rent for the week.

Well, I wrote and complained to Badminton Canada regarding the above. Let's see if they will respond.

Day 2 - Only could stayed until 12:15 pm. The schedule said that play is to start at 9am and I got there at 9:30 am and guessed what, no matches until 11 am. So that was a waste of my time driving for 40 minutes to get there. Anyhow, they finally posted the results of yesterday's matches. A correction to my previous post - Asuncion played against Steiner Klausen not Abusdal. Also Dean Shoppe (USA) lost yesterday morning - he injured himself and had to retired. It is kind of weird as Dean is an older player (originally I thought he was the coach) amongst the kids on the US team (oldest is proably not more than 23 yrs). Kyle Foyle lost his match agains Nick Jinadasa yesterday.

Anyhow, onto Day 2 - the morning sessions. Again no spectators other maybe one or two. I was again next to the US team and the Brazil team come along later to support their women players. Although there were 4 courts, only three were used as there were something wrong with the fourth one. The three early matches were between No. 1 seed Colin Haughton (Eng) and Kieran Kumar (Can); Raju Rai (US) vs Sam Smith (Can); Wojcikiewicz (Can) vs Forbes (Sco). Haughton had an easy game disposing of Kumar in straight games (15-0; 15-1) and Wojcikiewicz won his match agains Forbes. The interesting match was between Smith and Rai with Smith winning the first game. For the second game, Smith was leading Rai 12-9 when Rai came back to lead at 13-12 and then Smith went ahead at 14-12 but Rai came roaring back to tie it at 14-14. Smith has the option to set and chose not to which costed him the game. This got the US team up and cheering. The final game was a nail biter but Smith prevails and won the match. Tough luck for Rai.

The second set of games started at 11:45 and consists of Anderson (Norway) vs. Teo (Canada); Asuncion (Phil) vs Trenholme (Can); Hunter (Can) vs Go (US). Teo lost to Anderson in straight sets and it shows that Anderson like Haughton was at a higher level. Hunter lost the first game to Go and he was behind in the second game when I had to leave. Hunter seems to be a little out and has not much power in his smashes and his net play was just horrid. Again, the US contigent was very vocal whereas the Canadians were quiet. The game with Asuncion and Trenholme looked promising but I had to leave. One thing about Asuncion is that he is very quick and explosive! There was one rally where he was caught out of position and can only play a defensive shot which he did and came back and won the point. This guy is so quick!

Overall, I enjoyed the matches but it was too bad that I couldn't stay and catch some of the doubles action (my main interest).

Thanks for the report on Canadian Open. Is there any way to find the schedule for the weekend. I am interested to watch during the tournament during the weekend but I could not find either in badminton Canada nor badminton bc any schedule for the event.

Re: Day 2- Canadian Open

Hi Winex, here are my observations of today to supplement yours...

Originally posted by Winex West Can
Also Dean Shoppe (USA) lost yesterday morning - he injured himself and had to retired. It is kind of weird as Dean is an older player (originally I thought he was the coach) amongst the kids on the US team (oldest is proably not more than 23 yrs).

Dean Shoppe played doubles later on with that other older player from the US. I too thought they were both coaches *LOL* They played vs Canada (don't remember their names but I think one of them was Prevoe?). Canada won in straight sets. I don't know if it's just me or what but the Canadian duo almost seemed annoyed playing against them. They played a more softer-slower game, perhaps not what the younger Canadian pair wanted. Dean Shoppe was hobbling around in the game with his left calf in a neoprene compression brace. Although, for two "older" fellas they sure had pretty quick reflexes on defense!

Anyhow, onto Day 2 - the morning sessions. Again no spectators other maybe one or two.

4 tickets were sold yesterday about 10 were sold today. Badminton Canada is definately going to have to reach into their own budget to pay for the rental of the place.

That Smith (CDN) vs Rai (USA) game was indeed great to watch. Beres (CDN) vs Ghaffer (ENG) was also a great game, with Ghaffer winning in straight sets. However, each game I think he was behind and came back. I was told at one time he was trailing 9-0 and still ended up winning! I couldn't pay too close attention because I was line judging.

The second set of games started at 11:45 and consists of Anderson (Norway) vs. Teo (Canada); Asuncion (Phil) vs Trenholme (Can); Hunter (Can) vs Go (US). Teo lost to Anderson in straight sets and it shows that Anderson like Haughton was at a higher level.

Anderson may not be at the same level as Haughton. I see Vincent play regularly at VRC. He isn't the same caliber as the other national players in the tournament yet, although Kumar and Vincent might be similar in skill level. I line judged that game. Vincent was horribly out-classed and at times Anderson almost looked annoyed at having to play him. However, Vincent did win his mixed doubles match later on vs Guatemala. I think his partner plays at VRC too. Congrats to our locals and kudos to Vincent for having the guts to enter the tournament. However, I did think it looked rather "unsportsmanlike" when he repeatedly kicked his basket when switching sides instead of carrying it over like everyone else.

Hunter lost the first game to Go and he was behind in the second game when I had to leave. Hunter seems to be a little out and has not much power in his smashes and his net play was just horrid.

Hunter redeemed himself later in the doubles. Hunter and Beres (CDN) stomped Rai and Jinadasa (USA) 15-0, 15-8(?). Mike Beres is the iceman... never seen anyone so calm on defense. Returning net smashes as if he did it all the time... oh wait, he probably does do it all the time :P heheh

The game with Asuncion and Trenholme looked promising but I had to leave. One thing about Asuncion is that he is very quick and explosive! There was one rally where he was caught out of position and can only play a defensive shot which he did and came back and won the point. This guy is so quick!

Quick is an understatement, more like greased lightning. This lil dynamo stands barely over the net but his jump smash is phenomenol. Everyone in the gym kept stopping to look over every time he smashed because the sound was thunderous. I had to judge another match at the same time but I believe he ended up winning in straight sets vs Trenholme (CDN). His defensive reflexes are also so bloody fast that he just popped up easy ones for Trenholme to smash. He returned almost everything with extra postage too which would put Trenholme in trouble while recovering. I think Asuncion's sister(or wife?) is also competing. She put away Lavoie (CDN) easily in straight sets as well.

Overall, I enjoyed the matches but it was too bad that I couldn't stay and catch some of the doubles action (my main interest).

It's too bad you had to leave early. The doubles and mixed doubles were quite good. I line judged a womens doubles game from hell. Canada vs England. Canada won the first but England came back to win the next two. The match was so close and lasted over an HOUR! A couple of the rallies must of lasted well over a full minute! My eyes were going crossed-eyed. (Line judging sucks but I guess someone has to do it heheh). Charmaine Reid was one of the Canadian women and it was the first time I have ever seen a woman jump smash (throughout the course of the entire match). It was really cool to watch. However, it was at the cost of her stamina and at the end, it was the calm style of the English ladies that prevailed.

Canada also defeated USA in mixed doubles quite easily in straight sets. Veteran Denise Julien easily put away the young american duo. I can't remember her partners name but he played with Prevoe vs the olde USA mens duo. The US team was comprised of Emma?Eva? Lee and a young lad who's thai surname was so long it barely fit on the back of his shirt heheh.

I had a fun time today as well (besides that womans doubles hell match). Everyone should come out and support all the players. They all need a cheering section! It's so quiet in the gym that you can hear what the players mutter to themselves when they make unforced errors *LOL* .

Thanks for the report on Canadian Open. Is there any way to find the schedule for the weekend. I am interested to watch during the tournament during the weekend but I could not find either in badminton Canada nor badminton bc any schedule for the event.

Timeless...

Were you the fellow this AM who was sitting at the spectator stands until one of the line judge (friend) came over and handed you a t-shirt to line judge?

Yeah, the American team (except for Shoppe and the other older fellow, Matt Fogarty) are so young. I think Eva Lee is only 18/19 years (ditto for Erin Hois).

Re: Vincent. I'd to smile as I think towards the last couple of points of the second match, he exclaimed loudly "Ai-yah" when he didn't managed to return one of Anderson's shot. The Brazil team all turn to each other and went "Ai yah???". But for sure, kudos to Vincent and Kumar to qualify for the tourney.

Re: Asuncion. Man, this guy was nice to watch as he makes each game more exciting. He uses a Yonex MP100 and yes, his smashes are explosive.

Re: Timeless...

Originally posted by Winex West Can Were you the fellow this AM who was sitting at the spectator stands until one of the line judge (friend) came over and handed you a t-shirt to line judge?

Nope. But I know that guy though from BCIT badminton drop-in. I'm asian, have short hair, and was wearing shorts and a navy blue polo shirt, and black sandals. I pretty much went straight to the line judge table from the player/coaches door so you probably didn't see me arrive in the morning. I was the line judge sitting alone, closest to the public spectator seating during the Vincent Teo vs Anderson match. And as for Vincent's "aiyah's" *LOL* That was pretty funny (albeit pretty sad too). My wife said she could hear him say it repeatedly from across the gym! *LOL*

Too bad you couldn't stay to see his mixed doubles match vs Guatemala. That was pretty amusing too . I remembered his partners name, Angel Woo, in case anyone knows her. If you drop by again, say "hi" if you recognize me(?). My name is Jean.